Covid: Harrogate schools 'hanging by a thread' to stay open until Christmas as staff and students stay at home

There are warnings schools are struggling to stay open as staff stay at home and coronavirus costs climb during worsening pandemic disruptions.
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Headteachers and political leaders have raised concerns that classrooms are being stretched by the Covid-19 outbreak with a combination of teachers and pupils off sick with the virus or self-isolating due to exposure.

Richard Sheriff, executive headteacher at Harrogate Grammar School, said some schools have been "hanging by a thread" in the run up to Christmas and said families had a part to play in keeping infections under control.

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"At the height of this peak we really thought we weren't going to make it through to Christmas," he said, "and if people don't follow the rules we could well face another one.

There are warnings schools are struggling to stay open as staff stay at home and coronavirus costs climb during worsening pandemic disruptions.There are warnings schools are struggling to stay open as staff stay at home and coronavirus costs climb during worsening pandemic disruptions.
There are warnings schools are struggling to stay open as staff stay at home and coronavirus costs climb during worsening pandemic disruptions.

"The resilience and strength that staff and students have shown to cope with this pandemic can only be stretched so far."

Harrogate MP Andrew Jones revealed this week in Parliament that King James’s School in Knaresborough, is spending an extra £7,000 a week tackling Covid-19.

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Mr Jones said schools across the region are facing escalating costs from having “backfill teaching staff" to cover full-time teachers who are isolating at home.

"The highest levels of infection lead to the highest levels of people having to isolate, including teachers, so there are increased budgetary costs from having to backfill teaching staff," he said.

"King James’s School in Knaresborough, a secondary school in my constituency, briefed me that this is running at £7,000 a week, so schools are facing a significant challenge."

Paul McIntosh, acting headteacher of King James’s School, urged the government to help.

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He told The Yorkshire Post: "In the present climate, it is unsustainable to keep spending the extra money on resources like additional cleaning and supply teachers in order simply to maintain the school functioning in a relatively normal capacity.

"We would greatly appreciate the government giving serious consideration to providing schools with additional funding in order to support us through these difficult winter months."

Richard Sheriff, executive headteacher at Harrogate Grammar School, said some schools have been "hanging by a thread" to keep lessons running and urged families to play their part in keeping infections under control.

He said: "The resilience and strength that staff and students have shown to cope with this pandemic can only be stretched so far.

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"At the height of this peak we really thought we weren't going to make it through to Christmas and if people don't follow the rules we could well face another one.

"At primary schools where there is just one teacher per class it doesn't take much for them to struggle and many have been hanging by a thread."

The scale of the staff absences across North Yorkshire was laid bare by Ian Yapp, chair of the North Yorkshire Schools Forum, at the county's Covid-19 outbreak management board last week.

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Mr Yapp, who is also chief education officer at the STAR Multi-Academy Trust, said 27 members of staff across two schools within his trust were self-isolating last week.

He said it had a "huge impact" on teaching and called on the government for more financial support to keep classes running.

"Schools do want and need to be open to students as much as possible," he said, "and I'd like to continue to give praise to our health partners for the advice they give. To be frank, it far exceeds what we are getting on the phone lines through from the Department for Education.

"Our concerns that we continue to raise are the capacity to remain open as staff are being contact traced and are ill.

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"The number of students that are formally going off the roll to elective home education is also a concern that has been escalated up."

North Yorkshire County Council said schools in the region are currently reporting an average teacher attendance rate of 90 per cent.

Stuart Carlton, the county's corporate director of children and young people’s services, said: “Overall attendance rates for pupils and staff is currently above average. It’s very important to keep overall attendance rates in schools as high as possible and keep children and young people in education as much as possible.

"We’re very pleased that we’ve able to manage this throughout the pandemic.”

By Jacob Webster, Local Democracy Reporter